clwnuke

My daughter was a missionary @ Temple Square and got home just over a year ago (and already married).  She related that this week was always a big week for the sisters in the mission there.  They were extra busy and had to have everything just right. During the week, you would hear their warcry often - Conference Ready!
I love October conference. The autumn is so refreshing, especially after a literally burning hot fire season.
We will be making our signature lasagna. And hope that we can welcome the spirit into our home.

Wonder if we will get the new Hymnal or anything else even more exciting.

I like your response - I was taught by my parents to never complain about anything I was not willing to demonstrate improvement.   In other words - do not complain about anyone unless you are willing and capable of replacing them.
I do not know exactly why but when I was scout master I got more complaints about what was going on more that all other callings I have had all combined.  I solved the problem of parents complaining about campouts by suggesting that they take over the planning and excitation of our next camping activity - which was needed for merit badges to keep their kids on schedule to complete their scouting experience.
 
The Traveler

I'm good with that. If you stuff a running back, you flex like your on Muscle Beach, and then you reach down and help the running back up. I think that still qualifies as good sportsmanship.

Romans 8:5-7 "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”
As taught in the book of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon, the natural man is an enemy to God. You are right when you say we can't control the flesh. No matter how hard we think, we can't make a hair grow on our head or stop hormones from surging through our bodies. No man or woman should ever feel guilt for their appetites - they are by design. But they can still choose.
The fact that your true self, your spiritual self, can stop and yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit means you have every bit of agency that was promised in the pre-earth council. However, pre-mortal existence is not a widely held doctrine outside of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints so our members may benefit from that faith where others do not.
Keep 🙏 and doing good!

@Anddenex pretty much covered it. 

Just when it was safe to assume that modern anthropology / archaeology / genetics had proved the Book of Mormon is fiction (hence some felt they needed to leave the church or are still dealing with a faith crisis) another piece of evidence disrupts the previous iron-clad truths scientists had about the Americas. Or is constant disruption and change what science is all about to begin with 😲!?
I say we need to stop researching in order to stop these kinds of unorthodox discoveries that bring change and anguish to our happy world and cause students stress at test time.

https://www.science.org/content/article/human-footprints-near-ice-age-lake-suggest-surprisingly-early-arrival-americas

Amazing how in our efforts to "protect" children and young adults, we actually doubled their primary risk factor in the number one Covid comorbidity!
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7037a3.htm
Longitudinal Trends in Body Mass Index Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Persons Aged 2–19 Years — United States, 2018–2020
Summary
What is already known about this topic?
The COVID-19 pandemic led to school closures, disrupted routines, increased stress, and less opportunity for physical activity and proper nutrition, leading to weight gain among children and adolescents.
What is added by this report?
Among a cohort of 432,302 persons aged 2–19 years, the rate of body mass index (BMI) increase approximately doubled during the pandemic compared to a prepandemic period. Persons with prepandemic overweight or obesity and younger school-aged children experienced the largest increases.
What are the implications for public health practice?
Obesity prevention and management efforts during and following the COVID-19 pandemic could include health care provider screening for BMI, food security, and social determinants of health, and increased access to evidence-based pediatric weight management programs and food assistance resources.

Agreed. I've got a lot of math under my belt but I wouldn't even think of attempting that type of conversion with medicine/chemicals.

As a "scientist" I wrote with a great deal of sarcasm. It has never ceased to amaze me how quickly people will make rash spiritual decisions based upon a rather incomplete knowledge of events and histories, etc., and when those sandy foundations shift under their feet they panic.
If people are patient, the Lord will one day reveal all scientific things about the Book of Mormon and even my PhD cousin whom I love dearly, but who left the Church because he couldn't reconcile native American genetics with the Nephite/Lamanite narrative, will be able to see that all truth is indeed wrapped up in our imperfect but wonderful faith.

Just when it was safe to assume that modern anthropology / archaeology / genetics had proved the Book of Mormon is fiction (hence some felt they needed to leave the church or are still dealing with a faith crisis) another piece of evidence disrupts the previous iron-clad truths scientists had about the Americas. Or is constant disruption and change what science is all about to begin with 😲!?
I say we need to stop researching in order to stop these kinds of unorthodox discoveries that bring change and anguish to our happy world and cause students stress at test time.

https://www.science.org/content/article/human-footprints-near-ice-age-lake-suggest-surprisingly-early-arrival-americas

I'm good with that. If you stuff a running back, you flex like your on Muscle Beach, and then you reach down and help the running back up. I think that still qualifies as good sportsmanship.

I attended both BYU and UofU. I graduated from UofU. Hubby and I used to buy Utah football season tickets. I cheer for both teams. But, when Utah and the Y play each other I admit I am more for BYU than Utah. My experience has been that the rivalry is intense. Some of it is good natured, and I don’t mind that. It’s when it feels like hatred, that it becomes uncomfortable. Quarterback Max Hall’s statement of how much he hated Utah was inappropriate. BYU then had their long losing streak to Utah. Kind of kidding here, but I have to admit I have wondered if the Lord was punishing the Y for such unchristian behavior.

It's more the idea that we are learning more and more about the Americas. People said there were no horses before Columbus in America. And then you have this: https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/yes-world-there-were-horses-in-native-culture-before-the-settlers-came
This was one of the major anti-Mormon hit points while I served my mission and after when discussing the Book of Mormon with people over the internet -- YouTube. Joe Schmoe tried to con everyone with horses because he assumed horses were upon the Americas, what he didn't know is there were no horses in the Americas before the Spaniards.
@clwnuke is more saying that in time with all the new facts that scientists (with limited knowledge) said were not true, are ending up proving them incorrect. What else then can they be incorrect about? Like horses, there were "iron clad" findings --- until --- something comes along and proves them wrong.

Oh, the disappointment on people's faces when I told them I was in grad school at Tech ;)
But that was the year they tied for the National Championship so I guess it worked out all right. Tells you how old I am 😎

I remember when we moved to Georgia after college. The first thing everyone in the Ward wanted to know was Georgia or Georgia Tech?!? Football was at a whole new level there.

I think your bio mom was wise. Never confuse bedside manner with skillset competence. It's why job interviews are notoriously bad at predicting employee performance IMHO.

The Church has insurance for their activities and it is not a big issue to ask the Bishop to assist in making a claim IMHO. Don't really know the circumstances so it's hard to say, but as a long-time Scoutmaster I can say I never saw an adult try to downplay an injury. Usually we were the last to know.
@JohnsonJones You are not alone when you say "I feel like I am the glue holding my family in the Church to a degree these days, and I am afraid of what may happen when I am gone.  I want something to happen to help them because I don't know if all of them will remain in the Church once I am no longer here to try to keep them in it." There are many noble men and women holding fast to the rod and helping their loved ones hang on to the faith. Thank you for being one of them.
The war in heaven was a war of ideas about agency. Lucifer fought long and hard to convince a third of our family that the bullying, unfairness, cruelty, vice, hate, discrimination, racism, and endless multitudes of other kinds of evils that would accompany a world with free agency was not worth it.
Those of us here on earth fought together to allow agency because we trusted that Jesus would become our Christ and Savior and would make everything right in the end. I imagine that when Heavenly Father and Jesus taught us about the evils that the natural man would be capable of, we likely couldn't believe what we were hearing. Unspeakable cruelties, and nobody would be exempt from experiencing them - not even the Savior himself. He would be crucified and killed, by some of us in the congregation of the Heavenly Hosts. In fact, all these cruelties would be committed by those of us in the audience. But somehow, we knew the blessings of Eternal Life would be worth the suffering. We could never become Celestial without this earth life.
Satan knows this, and though he lost the war in Heaven, he is actively promoting the same falsehoods here on earth - that the Church, the doctrines, the leaders, the members, and all of Jesus and Heavenly Father's plan was and still is unfair and incredibly cruel. Sadly many of the valiant are falling for the second wave of Satan's propaganda machine.
I pray constantly that people can remember that they are loved sons and daughters of God, who knew the risks of coming to earth and chose to come anyway. I pray that when the waves of frustration and anger hit us in this life, that we will be able to find a thread of faith to hang onto until the last day.
@JohnsonJones you are one of those living and saving threads of faith for your family. Hang in there!

As a "scientist" I wrote with a great deal of sarcasm. It has never ceased to amaze me how quickly people will make rash spiritual decisions based upon a rather incomplete knowledge of events and histories, etc., and when those sandy foundations shift under their feet they panic.
If people are patient, the Lord will one day reveal all scientific things about the Book of Mormon and even my PhD cousin whom I love dearly, but who left the Church because he couldn't reconcile native American genetics with the Nephite/Lamanite narrative, will be able to see that all truth is indeed wrapped up in our imperfect but wonderful faith.

Just when it was safe to assume that modern anthropology / archaeology / genetics had proved the Book of Mormon is fiction (hence some felt they needed to leave the church or are still dealing with a faith crisis) another piece of evidence disrupts the previous iron-clad truths scientists had about the Americas. Or is constant disruption and change what science is all about to begin with 😲!?
I say we need to stop researching in order to stop these kinds of unorthodox discoveries that bring change and anguish to our happy world and cause students stress at test time.

https://www.science.org/content/article/human-footprints-near-ice-age-lake-suggest-surprisingly-early-arrival-americas

Job burnout due to Covid has hit many professions. And many people are simply looking at a woke world gone crazy and deciding to John Galt the situation.
If I didn't feel an obligation to serve my fellow man I would drop off the radar and stop earning money for the socialists stealing it out of my pocket and giving it to others.
I wonder how God will judge those who feel that it's OK to steal as long as they have the government do it through taxes and welfare programs.

The Ivermectin Deworming Hoax - Part III: Poison Control Exposed
by Justus R. Hope, MD
https://www.thedesertreview.com/news/the-ivermectin-deworming-hoax---part-iii-poison-control-exposed/article_a553b7f2-1a31-11ec-881a-a7df53e98d65.html
Dr. George Fareed is that doctor. Having graduated with honors from Harvard in 1970, he quickly rose to a young assistant professor at that institution and later worked in genetic recombinant DNA research. He worked briefly at the NIH. He was named the CMA California Rural Physician of the Year in 2015 for his excellence in treating patients.
Early in the Pandemic, he innovated a repurposed drug treatment that saved his community's patients with almost 100% effectiveness. He wrote an open letter to Dr. Anthony Fauci to inform him to no avail.
By the fall of 2020, he and his associate, Dr. Brian Tyson, together had treated nearly 2,000 patients with this repurposed drug cocktail.  They lost only one individual - and that person had come to them late - who had not received the full early treatment protocol. This account is legendary and has been published in multiple articles, books, and reviews. It is known as “The Miracle of the Imperial Valley.”
This month, Dr. Fareed testified before the Italian Senate in Rome, Italy, and discussed this experience. He and Tyson have now treated a total of some 7,000 COVID patients. 
Dr. Fareed explained that patients can almost always be saved when they start the early treatment cocktail within the first five to seven days of symptoms. 
"We have now treated over 7,000 patients, and there has not been a single death in patients treated within the first five to seven days of the onset of symptoms. NOT A SINGLE DEATH. This (series) includes patients with multiple co-morbidities as well as patients in their nineties!"
Dr. Fareed was clear in his testimony at both the US and Italian Senates:
"No one needs to die from COVID-19."
Perhaps the one physician in the United States who has directly treated more COVID patients than any other individual is also the most credible. He has no financial conflicts of interest. He has no reason to bend the truth. 
However, the same cannot be said for Dr. Anthony Fauci, who does not directly treat patients with COVID. Dr. Fauci is not a front-line doctor; he is a bureaucrat.
The CDC, FDA, and NIH agencies are, in essence, for-profit divisions of the pharmaceutical industry. Due to the patent laws, the researchers receive royalties from vaccines and treatments like Remdesivir, and the institutions also receive massive incomes.
Dr. Fareed's early cocktail employed a combination of hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, and nutraceuticals, including zinc, vitamin D, and C. He explained this in his remarks in Rome,
"Eighteen months ago, in March 2020, I, along with my colleague Dr. Brian Tyson, began treating COVID-19 patients early in the course of the disease with a combination of medications, initially primarily hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin or doxycycline, and nutraceuticals including zinc, vitamin D and C.
As Dr. McCullough explained, medications such as hydroxychloroquine act as ionophores to allow zinc into the cell to interfere with viral replication. 
As time progressed, so did our treatment, and we added drugs such as Ivermectin, fluvoxamine, and monoclonal antibodies, as well as aspirin and budesonide (steroid) to treat the other aspects of the disease."
To put Dr. Fareed's results in perspective, his county, Imperial, located in Southern California, has experienced 30,000 total COVID-19 cases and 750 deaths. Drs. Fareed and Tyson treated over 20% of them, some 7,000 patients, and simple mathematics would have predicted their group would have had their share, or 150, of these deaths. Arguably they had one casualty. Thus, they saved at least 149 patients or 99% with their protocol. Had the United States adopted it when Dr. Fareed advised the United States Senate on November 19, 2020, we could have saved 500,000 of the 650,000 deaths that occurred after his announcement.
However, many consumers, especially those who do not study medicine, will trust what the government agencies preach through the media. As a result, many will fall prey to the disinformation campaign perpetrated by Big Pharma.

I came across an interesting quote in preparation for my new Church calling. It's from a book called The Crucible of Doubt by Terryl and Fiona Givens.
"In 1945, a Church magazine urged upon its readers . . . that "When our leaders speak, the thinking has been done." 
This sounds a lot like the current vaccine debate among members. But it goes on to say:
"Many are familiar with that expression; fewer are aware that when President George Albert Smith learned of it, he immediately and indignantly repudiated the statement. "Even to imply that members of the Church are not to do their own thinking," he wrote, "is grossly to misrepresent the true ideals of the Church." Regrettably, this myth persists in the minds of many Latter-day Saints, even as leaders disavow infallibility and urge upon members personal responsibility."
This made me recall the First Presidency's January 19,2021 message on the Covid vaccine which stated: “Individuals are responsible to make their own decisions about vaccination.” 
Gut feelings do count IMHO. If those feelings change following more study, wonderful. But if they stay the same or intensify after more study, God wants us to follow those promptings IMHO.
 

As a "scientist" I wrote with a great deal of sarcasm. It has never ceased to amaze me how quickly people will make rash spiritual decisions based upon a rather incomplete knowledge of events and histories, etc., and when those sandy foundations shift under their feet they panic.
If people are patient, the Lord will one day reveal all scientific things about the Book of Mormon and even my PhD cousin whom I love dearly, but who left the Church because he couldn't reconcile native American genetics with the Nephite/Lamanite narrative, will be able to see that all truth is indeed wrapped up in our imperfect but wonderful faith.

I'm not sure how seriously to take this. I, for one, certainly hope that we don't stop seeking new knowledge and new understanding.
Perhaps you are overly concerned that new knowledge means "constant disruption and change"? Perhaps I am not as swayed by the strong language in the article, but it doesn't seem like a complete rewrite of the prevailing narrative of how the Americas were peopled. The only real change I see is that the previous assumption that people could not have crossed the Bering land bridge until late in the ice ages is wrong. For all intents and purposes, it looks like the main idea that the Americas were populated when people from Asia crossed the Bering land bridge is still intact. Exact timing seems uncertain, but, all in all, not much has changed. Maybe I am making a mole hill out of a mountain, but it certainly does not seem like something from which one should extrapolate that science is bogus and completely unreliable for learning about and understanding the world around us.

Job burnout due to Covid has hit many professions. And many people are simply looking at a woke world gone crazy and deciding to John Galt the situation.
If I didn't feel an obligation to serve my fellow man I would drop off the radar and stop earning money for the socialists stealing it out of my pocket and giving it to others.
I wonder how God will judge those who feel that it's OK to steal as long as they have the government do it through taxes and welfare programs.